Let's Make a Deal

Bryan and I were talking last week about how much we liked Let's Make a Deal. Maybe that is one game show they should resurrect. None of these stupid new-fangled primetime "game shows." Who in their RIGHT MIND wants to watch an HOUR of BINGO on TV???

If they brought back Let's Make a Deal, what do you think the loser prizes would be now? I don't think a donkey would cut it anymore. And what ever happened with those donkeys anyway. Did someone really take home a donkey?

Thanks to the wonder of the internet, I just discovered the the GSN cable network currently broadcasts episodes of the classic Let's Make A Deal each weekday at 10:00 A.M. ET and late night at 2:00 A.M. & 2:30 A.M. It's a good thing I don't have a channel as wonderful as GSN, or I would never get anything done. I love game shows, especially old ones. I also just learned that the costumes were the idea of the audience, and not originally part of the show. People started to bring signs and funny hats to attract Mr. Hall's attention. It spiraled from there to the outlandish costumes they used to wear.

Anyway, the real point of this blogging episode is that no one seems to want to make a deal with us. On Monday the offer on my house fell through. I guess the husband lost his job, so they could no longer afford my house. We should have another offer coming in either Friday or Monday from another, so we'll see if that actually happens. Also, the deal fell through on the condo we were going to buy. The inspection "found" a faulty breaker (it popped FOUR times in the hour we were there, and got really hot. The scummy owner declared "that has never ever happened before." Right. Even my inspector said he had to be lying. The guy refuses to fix the breaker, or even get an estimate to fix it. Now, regardless of him being a jerk or not, this is a HUGE fire hazard that even he shouldn't want to live with. There also is a flue pipe that isn't properly connected and has asbestos tape on it. Estimate to fix - $315. The seller refuses to put a dollar into it, so we told him to take his condo and shove it (well, we would have liked to say it that way). Now we are out at least the $275 inspection and whatever attorney fees we have racked up to date with the offer...at least $200. But I guess that is all better than getting a place with issues. Back to the drawing board. We found another condo that we love, but the taxes are $3,864 with a $253 a month HOA. That's $575 before we even paid for the unit! For now we are thinking about just renting and deciding what we want to do when we are back to a two income family.

Nothing like a wasted day

My work laptop froze today. Sure, that sucked, but what was even worse was that the proposal I had been working on ALL day was gone. Poof. No trace anywhere, even in a full system search. It turns out my computer ineptness bit me in the behind. The document was linked from another document. I saved it, but it turns out that unless you re-open that saved copy, you are working on some cyberspace version that doesn't really exist. So all the times I clicked on the save icon were for naught, and I have to start over tomorrow. Sigh.

In other depressing news, the condo we were all set to close on has now fallen apart. We are looking into suing for the lawyer fees and inspection fees that we had to outlay, but we are probably just out the money. It sucks that the jerk seller did this to us. All because he refuses to fix two issues that came up in the inspection because he is a cheapskate. He already hated us for making him pay the $50 for the HOA documents (duh, of course we need to READ what the restrictions are!) and $50 for a carbon monoxide detector (it's required by NY state, don't get mad at us!). Back to the drawing board. Can't wait for the vacation to Florida on Saturday. We are both SO excited for a real vacation! (even if I will be working part of it).

Lots to be grateful for

Sometimes, when life is crazy and stressful, I think I get so overwhelmed in the "to-do" list that I forget all of the great things in my life. Buying and selling a house is one of the most stressful things one can do, but in the midst of it I am truly a lucky girl. Just a small sampling of those things I have to be grateful for:

- A mom who loves us enough to put together packages to make us smile...familiar treats from home, my favorite coffee, some new stylin' duds, and some coin so we can enjoy a relaxing vacation. We love you mom!
- A job with a fantastic group of people and the flexibility to work abnormal hours (early, late, normal, weekend, whatever) that fit my work rhythms better and allow me to spend time with Bryan when he has free time (which can be during the afternoon or morning sometimes)
- A boyfriend who, without saying a word, does all of the chores I reallllly don't want to do (like being the brave one to go vacuum up the flea power in the flea infested room....yuck!). He also is always grateful when I do something nice for him, always complimentary about my cooking (even if it sucks), patient with me as I learn tennis, and always is just a sweet guy
- Friends who let you come over with your pets while you are putting yucky poison in your house, buy you lunch, and let you swim in their pool, all the while feeling like they are the lucky ones since you are hanging out with their kids while they go see a movie
- A roommate who puts up with endless cleaning for house showing without complaining and who is willing to stick with us when we change the deal she signed up for
- The ability to go on a vacation! In 2 weeks we are going to Florida, and some days that is all that is keeping us going right now with all of the house/school stress. I am grateful for parents who help us out so we can take vacations without worrying about finances, and I am grateful for a job where I can work from anywhere, including Florida for a few days.

For those of you following the house saga, we are closing on the condo September 21st. The inspection was today, and most things were fine except for a small issue with the electricity that the owner was fine with fixing. My house has a contingent offer, but we still have regular showings, so we are hoping for a better, non-contingent offer.

Favorite things

I figure if Oprah is important enough to broadcast her favorite things, then so am I. I also believe that people should share their favorite items, in case someone else has yet to "discover" them. Besides, if you buy them they are less likely to be discontinued, therefore benefiting me as well! I should say though that some of my favorite things are unique to me and are special to me because of their history, so you can't buy everything in this post. Without further ado, in no particular order:

I love these plants.

From Favorite things

Why I love them: The one on the left I bought when I got my first "real" job after college. I had my own office with a windowsill that begged for greenery. This guy was a little scraggly thing near death when I rescued it from my favorite rack at Fred Meyer....the plant reject rack. I think it was $1. Second from the left is the African Violet that Bryan bought me while I was just in Boston because he missed me and wanted a gift for when I returned. Skip over the Garfield chia pet...that's Bryan's. Next is the African Violet I won at my best friend Maria's wedding shower two years ago. I won for correctly estimating a bucket full of household goods from Target. I rocked at it because I am a faithful Target shopper. On the right is an aloe vera plant. This plant was started at Sherri's house long ago when Lani was just a baby...so about 6 years ago. She had a sadly neglected aloe plant, so I repotted it and all of the "sprouts." This is a world-traveler plant. It has been to Portland and back by car. Now parts of the first planted sprouts also reside at Bryan's sister's house.

From Favorite things

The top plant here was a gift from my internship supervisor Tamara when I was finishing up my master's degree. It had these beautiful purple flowers, then looked like a weed for the rest of the year. When I moved to Rochester I was going to throw it away (it had been a year without any new flowers), and lo and behold it had 5 just budding flowers. The bottom plant I "won" in the gift exchange my first year at PRE, about 4 years ago. All of these plants have been cross country with me, so I love them. Each one has a story that reminds me of something important in my life.

I love these Nike flip flops.

From Favorite things

Why I love them: These are the MOST COMFORTABLE flip flops I have ever worn. So much so that when Bryan borrowed them one day at a concert, he immediately wanted his own. Now I have 3 pairs, he has 2, and our roommate Krista has been known to slip on some of ours when no one is looking! I wear mine so much I have tan lines from them.

I love this scrub.

From Favorite things

Why I love it: I could sum this up with "I love Bath and Body Works," as you will soon see. This scrub is divine. A light scent of lavender, subtle scrubby stuff, in a creamy paste. Delightful! Even better that it was on sale for $4 when I bought it.

I love this shampoo and conditioner.

From Favorite things

Why I love them: Not only is this stuff cheap (on sale for $3 a bottle at B&BW), but it smells fantastic. The first week I used it Bryan was constantly saying how good my hair smelled.

I love this lip gloss.

From Favorite things

Why I love it: This gloss comes in many different shades and glides on smoothly with no clumps. But my favorite part is the mint scent it has. So fresh and soothing. Totally worth the $7.50 price tag, although I have never paid more than $3 on sale.

I love raspberries, hand picked

From Favorite things

Why I love them: I truly think there is nothing better in this world than a raspberry. Sweet, yet tart. Seedy, yet smooth. I love that in New York there are TWO picking seasons...summer and fall. These berries I picked this week, along with some blueberries and gooseberries.

I love tastycakes, namely butterscotch krimpets.

From Favorite things

Why I love them: My friend Travis introduced me to these in college. They come from his home town of Philly, so every time he went home I would give him money to buy me some. These light cakes have a sweet frosting on top. They are delicious, and at 6 grams of fat for 2 cakes, they aren't a terribly gluttonous indulgence. I hadn't had them in forever, and literally squealed in a grocery store in Florida on our vacation when they had them. Imagine the squeal I had a few months ago when I found out Tops has them RIGHT HERE IN ROCHESTER.

Saving the best for last, I love this man.

From Favorite things

Why I love him: There are a million reasons why I love him, but as of late, it is because he is my pool hero. Although he is stupendously busy with school, he has spent COUNTLESS hours skimming, filtering, and vacuuming the pool. He was the first brave one today to jump in so he could scoop the last stubborn parts by diving under and using the scoop. I think tomorrow I might just jump in myself. Man I wish I had a picture of the DARK green swamp we had just a few short weeks ago.

I think I'll go to Boston

Thankfully, unlike the Augustana song, I didn't go to start a new life where no one knows my name. I went to see my best friend from high school (who lives in Portland). She was in Boston visiting another friend from high school and studying for her medical school boards. She was kind enough to invite me to come visit for the weekend.

I'd never been to Boston before. The first night involved a BBQ, where I learned for sure I have no interest in ever moving to Boston. Many of the people there, albeit nice, were SO typical snotty east-coasters. The Boston area is home to many prestigious universities (Harvard, MIT, Tufts, etc), and many of the people were either former or current students (PhDers for the current ones). They couldn't talk about anything besides school. AT ALL. I don't ever want to be like that. The name dropping that went on was ridiculous. This was a group of argumentative "I'm always right and you're always wrong" kind of people. Sure, the copious amounts of alcohol didn't help, but I have never been one to understand that holier-than-thou attitude that seems to unfailingly go along with the more well-known universities.

The weekend really involved a trip to New Hampshire, which is a very pretty, green, fairly unoccupied state. Anne's (our friend who lives in Boston) boyfriend's parents have this very cute fairly rustic cabin that we stayed at overnight. We first went on a hike in the White Mountains. The day was perfect and it was very beautiful. It was a bit strenuous for a non-hiker like me, but the reward is that at the top is a lake and a cute little hut that serves food. They hike supplies up to the hut!

From Boston 2007

From Boston 2007

After the hike, the four of us (Maria, Anne, her boyfriend, and me) had a very fun "date night." It started off with dinner at a local pub in whatever town we were in in N.H. They had some unique beers. Of course, I liked the raspberry one :)

From Boston 2007

Then we went to a really neat putt putt course. I took a respectable second, although the most fun part of the night was the combination of Anne's VERY powerful swings (many went off the course) and her boyfriend's utter seriousness about the game. He did not appreciate the razzing that was going on. After all, putt putt is a serious game. Riiiiight :)

From Boston 2007

From Boston 2007

After putt putt, we ended the evening with some delicious ice cream at a local place. Sadly, Maria's camera fell off the table and broke, so the pictures of the weekend end here! Luckily there isn't much more to report except a yummy pancake breakfast the next morning.

All in all, it was a really fun weekend and great to see some familiar faces from home. But, when I came home to this, I was glad to be right back where I belong.

From Boston 2007

P.S. For those of you who are wondering about the house, don't ask. It's just better that way.

26 must suit me

Okay, so the first incident was 4 days before I turned 26, but that is just a minor detail! I already posted about the bagel guy telling me I was beautiful. Then on Tuesday I went into school to be Bryan's guinea pig for his nursing assessment final exam. I met one of his classmates while I was there, and she apparently told Bryan later that day "She is pretty, you guys make a really cute couple." While being prodded during the final exam, Bryan had to "catch" my kidney. It was really easy for him, and he cutely exclaimed, "oh, that's so cool!" to which the instructor grading responded "that's what happens when your patients are thin." So in less than 10 days I have been called beautiful, pretty, and thin, all by total strangers (two of whom were women). I think I could grow to like 26 :) I hated 25 though, so I'm very happy to be movin' on up.

I'm sad to say that my 4th didn't involve fireworks. I've come to learn that Bryan just isn't into holidays. New years, birthdays, July 4th, Halloween...they are all just days to him. He thinks (and I tend to agree) that it is because he doesn't have the traditions around holidays that I do. July 4th was almost always spent in the cul-de-sac. My brother would spend hundreds on illegal fireworks, as would some of the neighbors, and everyone would come out for the show and a big bucket of ice cream. It was so much fun! Here in NY you can't even buy any fireworks. Not even sparklers! We did see fireworks last week though. we live ~2 miles from Lake Ontario, and they had Harborfest. We rode our new bikes and had a funnel cake, walked around, and saw the fireworks over the lake. For just town fireworks, they were really impressive. I learned though that cameras don't take very good pictures of fireworks!

All you need is love. But a little chocolate now and then doesn't hurt.

I have been so busy lately that blogging has fallen by the wayside. But I am a faithful blog hopper daily, so I'm doing my best to remain an active blogger myself.

First off, check out the braces progress! Sorry the first picture is blurry.

This is day one. Note the overlap in the front teeth.

From Braces over time

Day 20. Already the teeth in front are a bit less overlapped.

From Braces over time

Just shy of 3 months in, with one adjustment so far. Check it out! My bottom teeth are finally moving now too, and I've noticed a lot of progress over the last week or two.

From Braces over time

Since I last posted, I had a birthday. I must admit, a late June birthday has always been the pits. When I was in school, it was just after school got out. Not only did I not get a fun classroom birthday, but everyone scatters on vacation right after school gets out, so my friends were rarely around. As an adult, I've had boyfriends who just don't get that my birthday is MY day to be spoiled. I always do fun things for their birthday, but it often isn't reciprocated. This year was no exception, although to no fault of the boyfriend. We have a severe lack of income for weekend get-a-ways, and my birthday fell on a Monday when he had a test from 8-11am and class from noon-7pm. Although I woke up feeling sorry for myself, a lot of people did a great job of making me feel special.

Krista, the roomie, got up early before the 8am test to make "Happy Birthday monkey bread." It was really yummy, and so sweet of her.

From 26th birthday

My mom and dad sent me these flowers, along with some yummy chocolates.

From 26th birthday

Then Sherri invited me over for an afternoon swim (it was 90 degrees on my birthday, a far cry from Portland birthdays!) and BBQ with she and the kids. They bought me cupcakes and were so excited to sing me happy birthday. Sherri made salmon, green beans, fresh strawberries, and potato salad. Awesome!

From 26th birthday

From 26th birthday

From 26th birthday

While I was at Sherri's, Kim and Anthony called to invite me to a birthday dinner. I obviously couldn't go, so they came over for cake that Bryan and Krista had bought for me. I love love love ice cream cake.

From 26th birthday

From 26th birthday

Lest it seem like the boyfriend did nothing, I should mention that he took me out to dinner Sunday night to Carabbas. It was delicious!

From 26th birthday

He also, the week before, got me a bike (and one for him) for my birthday. So far we have ridden to the beach a few times, and I'm hoping that once school calms down a bit for him we might take some longer rides.

My old co-worker also took me out to dinner on Park Ave on Wednesday for my birthday. It was great to see her and catch up on all of the old work gossip. We are definitely gossip buddies. I think we indulge each other in our guilty pleasures!

Thanks to Audrey and Brad's birthday generosity (Bryan's parents), this Saturday we went out to this new bar I had been wanting to try called The Chocolate Bar. They serve fancy martinis and fondue. There are 4 kinds of cheese fondue and 5 kinds of chocolate fondue. Kim and Anthony went with us, so we got 2 cheeses (spinach artichoke and southwestern). The awesome part was that the fondue and dipping items were unlimited. Here is the cheese one:

From 26th birthday

THEN, came the part that makes me drool just thinking about it. The CHOCOLATE! We got chocolate raspberry and chocolate peanut butter. But almost as exciting as two huge pots of chocolate was the tray of dipping items: fresh strawberries, pineapple, graham crackers, pretzels, bananas, little cheesecakes (strawberry and chocolate), oreos, and peanut butter cookies. Seriously, if you believe in heaven, this is it!

From 26th birthday

At $15 a person, this really wasn't a bad deal. But, with drinks, it would be something entirely outside of our budget, so THANK YOU Brad and Audrey. It really was the best time I had had in quite awhile. There was also a musician playing who looked like Chris Daughtry from American Idol. He sang pop cover songs, and he was pretty good. All in all, a really fun night.

From 26th birthday

From 26th birthday

The final possibly exciting news is that Bryan and I made an offer on a condo closer to school, and we finally came to an agreement with the guy today, after 3 rounds of offering. There are some pictures here:

Highland condo

Owning my house has become quite the financial burden. The condo is significantly cheaper and is within walking distance (more likely a bike ride) of school for Bryan. It will also be perfect if I go to grad school at the medical center. We will be able to pay more towards our student loans and have a bit more "play" money. While we aren't crazy spenders, we have recently come to see that having no money to even go to the movies really doesn't give us the break we need in life to feel rejuvenated from the stresses of work, school, and life in general. We'd also really like to travel (and see our families who are spread far and wide), and living in the condo would allow us to do that.

I should say though, that this is by no means a done deal. It is contingent on the sale of my house. I hope to get it listed this week with Anthony, so keep your fingers crossed for a quick sale and a great offer!

And finally, a few pictures of our "babies." Both Bryan and Krista are quite in love with Reesey, the fuzzy black one with the orange triangle on her head. I told Bryan if we move to the condo he can keep her, since we won't have the room to foster anymore. They are all doing fantastically well and are long done with bottle feeding.

Kitten love...it is not uncommon to see him loving on the kittens. Kissing them, holding them, talking to them, playing with them. So cute he is!

From Kittens

From Kittens

From Kittens

From Kittens

From Kittens

Are you talking to ME??

Today I went to Manhattan Bagel to do some work and get out of the house. Inside, I had to keep wearing my sunglasses so I could read the menu (they are rx sunglasses). I told the 30ish year old guy helping me "I promise I'm not a weirdo, I just need the prescription in my glasses to read the menu." He responded "Oh, I was hoping you were actually a weirdo, that would make for a better story." He got me my chocolate chip bagel (not nearly as good as Noah's) and my mocha freeze (delicious!), and as he's cashing me out he says, "If it makes you feel any better, you are a beautiful weirdo." It wasn't creepy or anything, just a genuine compliment. I have NEVER in my life been told by a stranger that I am beautiful. Strange that it comes on a day when I walked out of the house thinking, "man, my hair is frizzy today." But it made me smile (and blush), and it was a nice thing to hear. Gotta love the kindness of strangers. Thanks random bagel man for making me feel beautiful today.

DO NOT buy a house, part deux

In the ongoing saga of home ownership, today the shower/tub stopped draining. Now all women know that hair is usually the culprit, but that generally gets worse over time. This was all of a sudden. Plunging did nothing, and there was no hair to be seen. A walk to the basement proved that what water was escaping was going straight into the basement in a waterfall.

Thankfully, in the 6 degrees of separation game, my friend/realtor Anthony has a wife, Kim. She used to work with Jess, and Jess has a boyfriend John. John, in one of his jobs, is a plumber. So I tracked him down, and he came over a few hours later(with a crew of 3 very entertaining trainees). Turns out the stopper in the tub had just broken, but that required putting in a new section of pipe and a new stopper. While he was here, I also had him fix the leaky faucet. MAN I'm glad I didn't try that on my own! It required lots of parts to fix, along with many statements of "why would anyone ever put XYZ together like this?" Yikes! I have yet to find out what this little escapade will cost. He said he'll let me know on Thursday at the concert. Hopefully I get the "Friends and Family" discount. Either way, I'm SO grateful he came over. John was my hero for the day, and I now have a bathtub with many new parts (that doesn't leak through the faucet, AND the bath now actually holds water!).

Despite this, it has been a good day. Bryan played hookie from his first (insanely pointless and boring) class today. In exchange, he took me out to a fab breakfast at Mt. Hope Diner. Yum-o-licious! It was just nice to spend some time together. On the way home, we stopped and got us new bikes. He got me mine for my birthday, and I didn't want to ride by myself, so part of my birthday gift was a bike for him too. I'm hoping for a fun ride this weekend!

We've had some crazy weather today. Thunder louder than I have literally ever heard in my life. This Oregon girl isn't used to crazy storms! The temperature has vacillated from 82 at 8:30am (you can imagine what a hot stuffy night it was), to 70 at 2pm, and back up to the 80's now at 8:30pm. Crazy!

I hope to get more pictures up here soon. I just realized that I've been slacking with the photos lately. We all know that those are what we really read blogs for! :)

Would you still love me if I were a gay bee?

Yes, I was asked that question this weekend. Yes, that about sums up the weekend! It was uneventful, but at least ended with a nice picnic at Charlotte Beach in the perfect summer weather while I quizzed Bryan about things that I couldn't even pronounce. Oh well, I learned some stuff along the way (notably that BK doesn't give himself even one iota of the credit he deserves for being SUPER SMART). I think after this year I might just do the nursing program myself. Between what I already know and what I'm learning from the roomies, I'd probably do pretty well!

Not much else to update. Psyched about the Kenny Chesney/Sugarland concert this week (in part because it's with some fun friends that I haven't hung out with in waaay too long). I will have to miss out on my new beach volleyball league this week (which is super fun, and I'm one of the better players on the team...doesn't speak very highly of our team!). It's getting hot here finally...ugh! I dislike the winters here, but I think I like them better than the hot part of summer. We're still trying to get the pool running...it looks more like an odd Jones soda color now rather than a black swamp, so I *think* I'm making progress!

DO NOT buy a house!

Okay, for all of you who don't own a house, DON'T buy one! They call it a "house," but really it should be called "Sucks away all of your money and your free time." Don't get me wrong, it's nice to own one, but I'd give everything I own to be back in a condo. Today it cost me $150 to have someone come and replace the wheels on the garage door. 45 years of wear and they had finally fallen apart to the point that the door wouldn't open anymore. Yesterday, I spent $35 fixing things on the pool, and 2+ hours repairing it and cleaning it out, with more to do today. Three weeks ago, I spent $550 getting new electricity put upstairs, since we didn't have enough power to even run a small window A/C without blowing a fuse. I guess along the way I have learned how to fix many things, or who to call to fix them, but it is just so much work. Our next place we have already agreed will be a condo or a townhouse.

A few weekends ago I spent the entire weekend watching my friend's 3 kids (who are all over this blog). They are 6, 4, and 7 months, and really good kids, but at the end I was SO glad to come home! I learned that 3 is too many. I never wanted that many anyway, and now I certainly don't! Two is more than enough, and maybe just one is plenty. We had a good time though, and stayed very busy. First, we had to make tie-dye shirts for the girls to wear to camp. Of course, I was terrified at the idea of dye and little kids, but they were so great and listened to me carefully (it helped that I threatened them beforehand by saying "If you don't listen to every word I say, we will not be doing this"). We didn't get a drop of dye on anyone! I couldn't believe it. Just in case though, we did it outside in the grass in our bathing suits. Check out the final results:

From June 2007

From June 2007

I made the one that Peter is wearing, and the girls each made the ones they are wearing. Cassie had to find out the hard way that she should have taken my advice to add more rubberbands, since those are what cause the patterns. It still came out pretty well though.

We also read this book Pinkalicious about a girl who turns pink from eating all pink foods, and made pink cupcakes to go along with it.

From June 2007

From June 2007

From June 2007

I thought I'd share this picture of the latest visitor to the feeder. We thought this position was pretty funny.

From June 2007

The rest of our free time lately has been spent with these little rugrats:

From June 2007

From June 2007

We got them last weekend at 4 weeks old, and they are still being bottle fed. It is a decent amount of work, but they are bottle champs and super fun. We're not sure what happened to their mom. They were turned in to the animal shelter alone at 3 weeks. One had a pretty severe neuro issue going on, but it seems to be improving miraculously.

That's about it in Rochester land. The weather has been beautiful. I am slowly learning to play tennis, and we have gotten to spend more time taking breaks from school/work by going out to eat, watching Planet Earth (our new obsession), and just hanging out. It has been great.

Lots of catching up!

I haven't been a good blogger lately, but I have still enjoyed reading all of your blogs! I figure I'll start in reverse chronology updating everyone.

Currently, I am playing "patient" for Bryan as he practices his musculoskeletal system examination. For me, this means I get to help him learn and study, while I get something akin to a massage as he rubs my temples, checks my fingers, and sees if my spine is in line. All of this is great, until he tells me to touch my left ear to my left shoulder, then do the same with the right. I do it as best as I can, and all he says is "hm." I look at him quizzically, and he says "is that really all you can do?" and I tell him yes, I'm being a genuine patient. I guess I have extremely limited motion in my neck. When I ask "what does that mean?" he replies "I don't know. We don't ever talk about abnormal patients." Wow. Comforting. If I go see one of them as a totally healthy patient, I'll be fine. But if anything is wrong, they will have no idea what to do! I'm sure they will learn, but for now I've told him he has to go as his lab instructor what it means about my neck. So much for "helping" him. Now I'm just worried (and it helps oh-so-much when he says "I'm worried about you too.").

But before this assessment, we had a fantastic weekend. Lots of fun time, including trying out the diner by our house that we can walk to (cheap and a really yummy breakfast), trying out the local disc golf course (TONS of trees, but short fairways), getting our free ice cream cones at Friendly's, trying out the local China Buffet (can you tell we like to eat?) returning a few things at the mall, and getting some fun new products at the sale at Bath and Body Works. I love their sales!

Things are definitely calming down around here as I now work at home and Bryan is getting settled into a routine with school. Bryan makes me smile with his constant singing. You never know what song he'll bust into. It might be "Sweet Caroline" or some obscure rap song. Sometimes, when it's just he and I, it is accompanied by whatever silly little dance he makes up on the spot. If I'm standing to close to him, I get roped into the "dance." It's always a way he knows he can make me laugh. His singing reminds me so much of my dad, except my dad is a whistler. My dad constantly whistles, and even to this day, 3,000 miles away, if I hear a man whistling in the store I automatically look around to see if it's my dad. I guess Bryan sings instead though, because he can't whistle! That's right, not at all. I joined the club though when I got braces. I can no longer whistle.

Updates about my weekend with 3 kids later. Now, I really should be working!

One more day to freedom

I've realized that work is the equivalent of being a kid in school for an adult. Although instead of getting a summer break and looking forward to being one year older, you have to quit your job. I have one more day left at my current job, and I might, just for old times sake, sing "School's Out for Summer" when I leave tomorrow.

Life there has gotten worse and worse. I was there until 6:30 tonight, which put me at 9-10 hours today. And this isn't surfing-on-the-net-for-6-hours-and-actually-working-for-three kind of work. I'm trying to get a survey out, which requires extensive rounds of survey testing, emailing with clients, emailing with survey programmers, and emailing with project coordinators. I was so busy all day, and I'm growing more and more frustrated that my manager is nowhere to be found. This leaves just me to figure out how to do all of this stuff, with no motivation to learn since I'm leaving tomorrow. In the meantime, I have managed to piss off just about anyone in the company that I've had to deal with, because I haven't done anything on the "company approved timeline."

Today was supposed to be my first beach volleyball game. I joined a league to get to know some new people and get out of the house sometimes. I had to miss the game due to work. I was so upset by the time I left work that I had to drink when I got home. To the point of difficulty remaining erect. I NEVER do this. I rarely drank before I got this job, but it has gotten to the point of 3ish times a week. I can't be done soon enough.

I'm so excited to be back at PRE. It's familiar, it's interesting work, it's a normal pace, and I can have my life back. Sure, working from home might be isolating, but being back with a company I love is such an uplifting thought. One more day. I can do anything for a day.

Hopefully this weekend I'll get the pictures uploaded from last weekend with the kids and you can see our killer tie-dyes! For those of you who are following the exploits of the murse (since he is slacking with the witty blogging these days), he is doing fantastically. He happily declared the other day, "I finally think I'm learning something and actually understanding it." I can tell you that I've already had to start saying "what does that mean in English," so I know he is adapting well. To date he has all A's and B's, and I am super proud of him!

The 3.5 mile 5k

Yesterday, for the first time since high school, I ran a 5k. Now in any real world that would be 3.2 miles, but, we all know Rochester is messed up (see the post about li-locs), so their 5k is 3.5 miles. The run is called the Corporate Challenge and in Rochester over 10,000 people participated from 411 local companies! It was a really neat event that companies do, so I ran as a Harris employee. Although my time is an estimate (there wasn't a clock at the beginning, so we don't know how much time to shave off before we actually got to the start line), I think I finished in about 43 minutes. I'm thrilled about that, since it was 85 degrees, even at 7pm, and I hadn't trained for it at all.

While I'm thinking about the crazy way Rochestarians say lilac, here are a few others for you:
Chili - "chai-lie"
Charlotte - "shar-lot"
Denise - "duh-nice"

Portland has some too:
Couch - "cooch"
Willamette - "will-am-it"
Tigard - "tye-guard"

I think this week I'd get a solid B+ as a girlfriend, so I think I'm moving up :) I'm happy to say Bryan got an 87 on his first test, and the class average was an 83 (range of 71-95), so he did well. We're having a date night tonight (dinner and a movie) tonight, which I'm excited about. This weekend from Saturday morning to Monday morning I'll be watching the 3 little indians that are regulars on my blog (Lani, Cassie, and Peter), so I'll keep you all posted on how my first solid weekend with 3 little ones goes!

Not always the girlfriend I want to be

Anyone who knows me knows that I'm not a very patient person. Although I try really hard to be a good girlfriend (and friend and daughter), I'm not always very good at it.

Saturday I was a GREAT girlfriend:

I had really wanted to go to D.C. over the long weekend to meet some of Bryan's longtime friends, one of whom is moving overseas in a few weeks. That didn't end up happening due to the rigors of school, so instead I decided to treat us to some time at the salon. We both got manicures and pedicures. Bryan had never done it before, but always said he wanted to. It was very relaxing, and it was nice to just sit and do nothing for 2 hours. I also got a haircut. After seeing the haircut results, Bryan declared I was having a "pretty Tia day" with the blow-dried and styled hair, and freshly painted fingers and toes.

From May 2007

After the pampering, we went to Sinbads, a yummy Lebanese restaurant on Park Ave. We were having a good time just hanging out, so then we decided to walk around the local mall. We managed to make it out without buying anything (except an iced latte that we shared). Of course, for us a fun day together always involves a trip to Target, which we did :) Then on to Big Lots, which we left empty-handed, but still enjoyed hunting through the junk. I did find some of those cool stick-on tiles, which I think I might use to remodel the upstairs bathroom while Krista is gone. More pictures to come if that actually happens.

So although D.C. didn't happen, we still had a very fun day together. It is rare now that we get entire days together of fun, with the demands of school, housework, and work. I agree with Bryan that 3 day weekends are great because you get a "throw away day" where you don't feel guilty if you get absolutely nothing accomplished :)

Sunday I was an OKAY girlfriend:

I left BK alone to study most of the day. Our time together consisted of grocery shopping and buying the stick-on tiles, but that was okay with me. He made a yummy mish-mash dinner (leftover steak things that were rolled with carrots, spinach, and cheese, a bit of steak-ums, sauteed onions, served on a hoagie roll with cheese on top) while I put the groceries away. I happily started on the bathroom remodel while he studied.

Monday I was a CRAPPY girlfriend:

After declaring in the morning that "4 hours of studying was the goal," I was upset that I had to go to a friend's BBQ alone (in the afternoon). Not only was I alone, but I was the only person there sans their S.O. I pointedly avoided telling people that he choose the gym over having a good time with us. I left the party early (just as an awesome game of kickball was starting), in hopes that the now 6+ hours of studying would be over and I'd get some time. Not to happen, the studying went on all night, and the next thing I know it was 9:30pm and he was already sound alseep in bed. It sucks getting no time on a day off. So of course I was bitter and angry, as only Tia can be. Of course though, he's no dummy, and today I get a sweet text at work and immediately feel guilty that I would even feel remotely upset about him working hard to do well in school. Maybe I'm just upset because I think he's smarter than he thinks he is, so I don't know why he'd have to study so much!!! Heck, if I had a brain like he did I'd be over 100k right now :)

Anyway, in an effort to keep myself busy and stay out of his way, I did get the bathroom done.

Before:
Nasty green paint and ugly 1960 floors.

From May 2007

From May 2007

After:

From May 2007

From May 2007

From May 2007

I'm really happy with the way it came out. I already had the paint, and the "tiles" were only $30. A pretty cheap remodel if you ask me! Too bad the yellow tile has to stay.

So maybe the moral of the story is a)I can do a pretty quick and cheap "design on a dime" and b) I can be a great girlfriend only 1/3 of the time :) Hopefully that's good enough for him, at least for this year ;) After school, maybe I can bump it up to at least 50%!